FG Unity can't come fast enough

[Magnimost]

We just wasted 90 minutes of six people's time trying to figure out how to get FG work with OpenVPN as it stopped working after months of use for no apparent reason. We've probably spent a good two dozen man hours over the years setting it up and managing this ****. Now it seems to have crapped itself for good.

Can't wait for FG Unity which hopefully will take FG to the 2010s when it comes to networking. Please please make the alpha so that Ultimate license holders can add free users so we can play without having to kick the puppy out of frustration.

[TheoGeek]

My ability to host games suddenly broke one day after working forever. Turns out, my ISP switched to assigning users IP addresses behind a Carrier Grade NAT - and port forwarding doesn't work behind that so I had to use a program that basically set up a VPN - it worked, but I didn't want the hassle. I switched ISPs because of that.

[LordEntrails]

OpenVPN is not a known good solution. Hamachi and PureVPN (with static IP) are. I suggest you use a known good solution (with directions found on the forums here) rather than try to blaze new ground with a different (Open VPN) solution. And of course reach out to the community on the forums here or via one of the Discord servers for more immediate assistance.

As for the alpha, expect it to have bugs and to crash for no apparent reason. I don't think anyone is going to want to play live games with it if such things frustrate them.

[Magnimost]

OpenVPN is not a known good solution. Hamachi and PureVPN (with static IP) are. I suggest you use a known good solution (with directions found on the forums here) rather than try to blaze new ground with a different (Open VPN) solution. And of course reach out to the community on the forums here or via one of the Discord servers for more immediate assistance.

We're blazing new ground because the known good solutions don't work. We tried Hamachi years ago, spent a few evenings working it out, it kinda worked, but not consistently. And adding new players or any kind of edits to the network config was a huge PITA.

We got tired of that after a few months, so moved to OpenVPN, which has been fairly solid for a few years, until today.

[Andraax]

Hamachi is *much* easier to config than OpenVPN.

[LordEntrails]

I hate to see people spend so much time and frustrate themselves so much when the community is here to help. There are lots of people who are willing to help when needed, and several very proficient networking experts. I just hope next time you don't spend hours trying to figure out something on your own when someone here abouts can help and get things resolved in a fraction of that time.

Happy gaming.

[damned]

Ive seen mention that the Alpha might not have ANY networking enabled and we wont see networking added until the beta.
There is no way there will be free demo players on the alpha.

[aribethdm]

i stopped using Hamachi for the 4 people limit on the free version. i use Zero Tier One and I can host unlimited players.

[Magnimost]

Hamachi is *much* easier to config than OpenVPN.

Yes, but it doesn't work properly for us and free version has a four-person limit, so there's that.


I hate to see people spend so much time and frustrate themselves so much when the community is here to help. There are lots of people who are willing to help when needed, and several very proficient networking experts. I just hope next time you don't spend hours trying to figure out something on your own when someone here abouts can help and get things resolved in a fraction of that time.

Happy gaming.

We have two professional IT nerds in our group, one manages cloud networking. We asked help here a few years back, but as I said, Hamachi was unreliable and a PITA to configure and keep working.

Besides, the latest issue came at the beginning of a game session so troubleshooting it over the forums so we could play would not be fast enough. Wasting everyone's time on a Saturday night is rather frustrating, and it's not the first time.

We'll get it to work somehow I'm sure, but will ask on the forums if we don't this time.

[damned]

For Hamachi and more players you simply create another network and you put the extra players in that network.
The GM is in both networks and the players only connect to the GMs computer.

ZeroTier has a little more setup than Hamachi but Ive also used that for many things.

Any VPN service that allows you to bind a specific port to the VPNs public IP address will work.

You still have to manage windows firewall and any software firewalls etc too no matter what solution you use.

[Andraax]

i stopped using Hamachi for the 4 people limit on the free version. i use Zero Tier One and I can host unlimited players.

You can have unlimited networks on free version of Hamachi. So, you setup one network for the first 4, a second network for the next 4, etc. This was documented in the posts explaining how to setup Hamachi.

[LordEntrails]

FYI, we all understand the frustration. And hopefully all the advice we are given is not to make you feel bad, only to help you the next time. Nothing networking/connectivity wise has changed in FG since when it was working for you, but rather rather something on the host computer, network, or ISP side. If you need specific help, let us know.

[Magnimost]

You can have unlimited networks on free version of Hamachi. So, you setup one network for the first 4, a second network for the next 4, etc. This was documented in the posts explaining how to setup Hamachi.

This is what we did. It was such a PITA to manage when you add players or change IPs or reinstall Windows or the start are aligned incorrectly that we stopped using that house of cards.

[Andraax]

This is what we did. It was such a PITA to manage when you add players or change IPs or reinstall Windows or the start are aligned incorrectly that we stopped using that house of cards.

Funny, when I used it, I only had to set it up once. Never had to touch it after that. Players 1-4 got one network (which never changed), players 5-8 got the next network (which never changed), etc (the GM was in each network). When a player connected to their assigned network, they select the GM's computer in the network list, copied the IP address displayed there, then pasted it into the "host" field on the join game screen. Simple, easy peasy. Windows updates did not disturb the configuration.

[Magnimost]

Funny, when I used it, I only had to set it up once. Never had to touch it after that. Players 1-4 got one network (which never changed), players 5-8 got the next network (which never changed), etc (the GM was in each network). When a player connected to their assigned network, they select the GM's computer in the network list, copied the IP address displayed there, then pasted it into the "host" field on the join game screen. Simple, easy peasy. Windows updates did not disturb the configuration.

Glad it worked for you.